My Photo Books – iPad app review

Photo apps are a dime-a-dozen–it seems there’s a new fancy camera tool out every time you check the App store. There are also a million-and-one organizing tools–apps to help you edit, file and keep track of all those priceless family photos and artsy endeavors.

My Photo Book is the latest app to add to that latter category and although it doesn’t boast as many bells-and-whistles as other photo organization apps, it’s still a fun way to keep track of your pictures by framing pics and placing them in flip-book-styled photo albums.

The tool is pretty simple: Take a picture or upload it from your iPad library, adjust its position, write a caption and save. You can put several pictures on one page and name the album whatever you want. With a plethora of album templates such as “Wedding,” “My Baby,” and “Back to the School,” it’s kind of like a virtual scrapbooker’s dream. There’s also a “Simple Album” if you’re looking to customize your own category.

And, when you’re done, the app lets you share via e-mail or Facebook.

What I liked: This app is super-easy to use and a nice way to show off your memories and photography skills. I created a couple of albums in just minutes–plus it’s fun to write those captions.

What I didn’t like: You can’t edit the photos from within the app and the number of template categories seems oddly limited. For example, there’s a “Halloween” template but not one for “Christmas.” And while there are several baby-related templates, there’s not a single one for pets. That’s practically criminal in my book. Sure you can customize one with the “Simple” album, but it doesn’t feature cute graphics like the others do.

To buy or not to buy: Depends on how obsessive you are about your pictures. $2.99 isn’t a bad price, but without those editing or extra customization options, it may not be worth the money to some.